Battery drain

[Anniversary SL]

The Battery in my 1997 SL500 seems to be discharging when the car is off. I just replaced the battery with a new one and noticed that when I connected the negitive terminal that there was a distinct spark. I checked to see if everything was turned off, including the trunk light. Still I have a fairly bright spark when I connect the negitive terminal. Anyone have any ideas on why there is a discharge? Help would be appreciated.

Ken

 

[blassberg]

earthed ok?

 

[colechelle]

without locking the car you will have 1-1.5amp pull,hence the flash your getting, only way to be sure is with a muti-meter or amp clamp, using either one connect in line on battery shut boot lid catch so alarm thinks boot is shut, lock car, proberly start from bout 3amps and should slowly drop of to 0.04ma, if anymore pull than that then you have got a drain, then it starts to get intresting........but thats the first step

 

[TimN]

Quick and simple test is to take each fuse out in turn and repeat the spark test that you did. This should expose which fuse the problem is link to.

 

[colechelle]

sorry to tread on your teos tim but without having the car locked down your always going to have a flash no matter wot fuse you pull out, the only correct way is as i said above then if you got drain then you have to pull fuses and then locking the car down again and giving it the correct going to sleep time which is 15 min max on that model sl....